Ugandan startups are among the budding companies that are allowed to apply for the CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa, a program of Fintech startup development funded by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology or, the LHoFT, with support from several other powerful organizations.
The event will be in Luxembourg between November 5-9, 2018, and it will run for a week. The 12 Fintech firms working to improve financial inclusion in Africa that will qualify will participate in a Bootcamp that will involve training and networking.
According to officials, CATAPULT Africa aims to provide support to promising Fintechs by helping them proceed to the next stage of development in Africa and in Europe.
The bootcamp also aims to promote and draw attention to the importance and value of Fintech for Financial Inclusion, through local and international media exposure, with the goal of focusing broad attention to the initiatives that are driving positive change in Africa.
Must read: Startups to face off in AppsAfrica innovation showdown
Officials say that Fintechs being a “tool to bolster financial inclusion by helping banks and microfinance institutions to become more efficient and effective in reaching underserved market segments”, they need to be supported.
Who qualifies
According to an official statement, startups selected “could range from pre-seed to Series A stage.”
In general, the statement reads, “the bootcamp is stage-agnostic as it aims to further support promising early-stage startups in the fintech for financial inclusion space and create synergies between them, partners, sponsors, investors, Microfinance institutions (MFI) and Public Financial Institutions (PFIs).”
Only Fintech companies with a clear financial inclusion focus will be allowed to participate. For the company to quality, it “must be delivering a solution directly applicable to the target region: Africa.”
Other conditions for qualifying include having a minimum viable product already that would be capable to implement in a pilot project, having meaningful customer or business validation (not limited to revenue, can also be successful pilot studies, number of users, and/or strategic partnerships), and the company must have a strong and well-balanced team.
The Deadline to applications is September 25 and you can apply from here. Travel and accommodation costs for the participating Fintech companies will be covered, according to officials.
Related:
Why Africa’s youth should be encouraged to launch tech startups
Golix Uganda, RightMesh to improve internet connectivity with tokenized networks
